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Coach’s News Letter - July 28, 2006
Recap of Recent Events
The excitement on the pool deck is electric. The Stingrays thanks to hard work by all swimmers are undefeated
for the first time in history! We ended the season by doubling the score of our opponent South Hadley and then
going on the crush Ludlow 551-245! The South Hadley meet was punctuated by two USA swimming ‘A’ time standards
by Melanie Goodberlet and a wonder full dual in the pool between our “A” and “B” relays.
At home, against Ludlow, we saw an astonishing 35 USA swimming time standards achieved. Most notably Sarah LaClair,
and Kate Mahue achieved their first 9-10 cuts. Jin Choi edged closer to his goals in the 100 free knocking over
2 seconds from his time while swimming virtually alone against the field. In the girls 11-12, 200 IM Madison Granger,
improving her time by 26 seconds, and Nicole Stewart, improving by 17, finished first and second. Other 1-2
finishes included Ashley Chumbley and Bryanna Veroneau in the 100 IM, Smantha Terault in the 50 free, and
Nick Burgos in the 100 Back. Nick showed how far hard work in practice can go
toward improving and made his fourth ‘BB’ time standard.
If there were a comeback swimmer of the year award, Alice English would be the recipient. After taking a year off
of the sport, she is at every practice slowly working her way up the lane and improving as she considers swimming
for Division II St. Michael’s College in the fall. When 18 year old swimmer take off one second it seems like 10
seconds did when they were 9-10. Alice took off over three seconds against Ludlow. She isn’t the only older swimmer
improving Jessica Jindela shaved a second from her 200 IM and Alex Burgos chopped 2 off his 100 free. Kim Panetta
and Audrianna Wither are also showing that they will be able to help at the High School level very soon by posting
strong improvements in the 100 Butterfly. Lastly, very tiered, Chelsea Halon had a best time against South Hadley
in the 100 IM.
Bryanna Veroneau twice raced last years 9-10 Girls league champion from Ludlow and twice came from behind to win
the event while improving her times as she moves ever closer to a ‘A’ time. Melanie Goodberlet posted large
improvements in the 100 free and 100 fly. Other impressive Butterfly improvements came from Robbie Lewis,
Megan Zoufaly, Riley Synan, and Sienna Nielsen. Shon Choi and Brenna Skaza both swam best times in the Back stroke
and Made USA ‘B’ standards.
Other notable performances came from in the 100 Free, Julia Maloof in the 100 IM, John Sumaryono in the 100 Free,
and Anna Sullivan in the 100 Free. This was a great win for the team and an excellent way to go into championships.
Practice
We have arrived at taper. For those of you unfamiliar with this term I’ll use a simple metaphor.
Everyday a swimmer practices is like putting money into a high intrest savings account. In this case
the intrest is seen in improvement and potential. As the swimmer works harder and harder the increased benefits
of that work get put into the savings account. Swimmers cannot spend this money until they rest.
This is why it is important to be consistent with how much you practice, just like your parents are
consistent with how much they save for retirement. Each day missed from your normal training cycle takes money
out of the bank. When we taper we swim every possible day but the practices get easier. This helps us rest
while keeping us in top shape. This rest is like cashing in our entire savings from the whole season.
A great taper can bring as much as 15% improvement in times.
During this time of year we will be working a lot on our starts and turns. Some of our younger swimmers
will continue making minor changes to technique. The work each swimmer does in practice will be highly
specific to the swimmers needs at championships. Attendance is very important for the best possible results.
The Big Picture
Championships are right around the corner and it promises to be very, very close.
I have been calculating different possibilities based on last years results from championships all week long.
If we have everyone except the people who have told me in person that they will not be there,
It looks like we might win the meet but only by 20 points! West Springfield, Agawam, Longmeadow and Chicopee
will all be bunched at the top with us. These teams have very powerful older age groups so winning the meet
must be a total team effort. Historically Longmeadow has never had a large enough team to contend for the
championships, however, man for man, they have the most talent in the league.
This team has already exceeded all of my expectations. Regardless of what happens at championships,
I am proud of all of you. I believe we, the whole team, has built a very steady platform that we can
use to take us as far as we are willing to work. The celebration at the pool after Ludlow was a wonderful
experience that I will never forget. All of you have been wonderfully supportive of each other and the
coaching staff. I cannot say enough positive things about the, rec department that increased our pool time,
the Athletes that work so hard every day, the parents who are wonderfully supportive of the team, and the rest
of the coaching staff whom without we could not have hoped to achieve what we have.
Sincerely,
Coach Dan
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